House Speaker Paul Ryan, (R-Wis.), on the federal budget and efforts to rein in government spending.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, saying entitlement reform is essential to limiting budget deficits, criticized Sen. John McCain on Tuesday for voting last year against the repeal of Obamacare.

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“The house has passed these bills, but John McCain said no instead of yes,” Ryan said during an exclusive interview with FOX Business’ Maria Baritromo on “Mornings with Maria.”

Last summer, McCain, R-Ariz., arrived on the Senate floor and gave a thumbs down to the bill, which ended up two votes short of the 51 needed to pass the legislation. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined McCain in voted against the bill.

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“The house Republicans passed the biggest entitlement reform package ever when we passed our health care bill,” Ryan said. “Unfortunately somebody did this instead of that in the Senate and it didn’t pass,” Ryan added, making the thumbs up and then the thumbs down sign.

Controlling health-care entitlements is essential to the budget process, according to Ryan.

While he was unsure whether a reform package will be in place this year, tackling the “root cause” to bring down the cost of health care can be done in the meantime to limit budget deficits, Ryan said.